The Primal Hunter

To kick or not to kick. That is the question.

Well, alright, it wasn’t really a question but just Jake’s default way of handling any opponent he met in the arena. He knew full well that the situation couldn’t continue forever, but for now, his stats just outmatched everyone else by quite a margin.

It quickly became apparent that most of his opponents didn’t even have 10 in all stats, much less 16 in even their lowest, like Jake. This meant Jake thoroughly beat any and all opponents he met just by easily overpowering them. He was – metaphorically speaking - an adult professional fighter beating up a bunch of kids to quickly advance in ranks. If simply skipping ranks was possible, he would have gone for that, and on the third day, Jake even tried to ask the Battlemaster if it was possible to meet some higher-ranked opponent for a promotion match. To which the middle-aged man answered in a totally not judgemental tone:

“Oh, I am sure you would want that. Hey, do you think anyone else here wants the same? You’re confident, so surely that is enough, right? What complaints could your opponent possibly have for getting matched with some low-rank opponent who doesn’t even pull in a good audience? Surely, the fight itself would also go without a hitch, and with a victory, there would to so much glory in beating someone several ranks below yourself. And who would possibly feel humiliated if they lost to someone expected to be so much weaker than themselves? Yeah, definitely no one, so let me do you a favor here and now and change the centuries-old rules of the Colosseum just because you don’t feel like advancing the usual way! Who needs proper rules and a ranking system anyway? So old-fashioned. Having everyone fight everyone would be so much more exci-“

Jake cut him off after that, having gotten the point. The Battlemaster was a bit short with him the rest of the day after that, but luckily he was back to normal the next morning. However, during his first match on the fourth day, he found himself in an odd situation.

Standing ready behind the lowering gate, Jake looked at his beastkin opponent. She was a woman who was nearly two meters tall and had metal claws strapped to her hands. She definitely looked menacing and ready to pounce.

“Combatants, enter the arena!”

The moment the gate lowered, he walked forward as his opponent charged, yelling loudly:

“Heard you’re good at kicking! Let’s see you kick my claws, you pathetic human!”

With an annoyed frown, Jake looked at her and decided to get the fight over with right away. He even felt a surge of killing intent due to her comment as he considered employing the secret technique known as the dropkick. His eyes met with hers… and then things got weird. Right as their eyes met, she came to an abrupt stop and jumped back with wide eyes, hair standing up on her back.

Jake stood confused as she stared at him for a moment. Her sneer was gone, and her form lowered as she slowly backed away, looking perplexed. Jake took a step forward, making her jump back as she yelled loudly.

“I surrender!”

Wait, what?

More confused than before, he wanted to ask the beastkin what the hell was going on… but before he even properly registered that the fight was over, she had run out of the arena faster than she had arrived. Jake had no idea what was going on initially… until he got an idea.

In the next fight, he tested his theory.

Jake considered something he hadn’t really thought much of for a long time. Everyone had an instinct; he knew that. It was natural, and while the enlightened races tended to have weaker ones than beasts, it was still there, with beastkin often having instincts often comparable to or even surpassing some beasts. Why did this matter?

quickly, though, as it was a dead giveaway that he had a Bloodline due to its peculiar effects. This leakage of presence back then didn’t really have any major impact under normal circumstances, as it was pretty normal to leak a bit of aura in the lower grades, but for Jake, it had quite the implications outside of being a neon sign advertising

the Tutorial. Raptors began to steer clear of him when they felt his aura and ran on sight. Even after coming back from the Tutorial, when he claimed the Pylon of Civilization, it shrouded the entire area in part of his presence, marking Haven as

presence of other living beings. After reaching higher grades, Jake couldn’t use his presence to directly pressure anyone around his own level of power without using Pride of the Malefic Viper, even if he had a powerful Bloodline. Not because it was less powerful than before but because people had learned to resist it. The only way he could have turned his Bloodline-empowered presence into an actual attack would

flex your power. Semi-uniquely for Jake, he could also use it to train others to resist presences faster, but he had found that just being around him seemed to do the job, though it was far slower than active resistance training. This was, as mentioned, only semi-unique to Jake, as others could also help you train to resist

level 0, as far as he could tell. They didn’t have any exposure to powerful presences and thus had no resistance. Partly related to this was the second reason: everyone’s souls were weak. The third difference was

attack, there were other ways to use the uniquely powerful response others had to his Bloodline. The instinctual response it instilled in anyone who wanted to fight him. He still believed a powerful foe could zone

murderous intent. He even infused mana into it right as the match began, scaring the poor guy shitless. The experiment

only one aspect of his presence: Suppression. No, calling it suppressing was wrong. It wasn’t quite the

Fear.

The fear any human would experience when confronted with a bear or a lion before the system. It was the kind of fear that solicited a response

happen. He faced an elven woman with a rapier. She began with refined footsteps, and when fear gripped her, she didn’t retreat. No, she chose to fight. However, she was unable to keep calm

Because he did have one other skill that he felt was at least tangentially related to the concept

the

soul attacks by looking directly at his opponent’s souls. More accurately, he directly attacked their Soulshapes through an ocular connection, which was also why he needed visual contact. How exactly this concept worked, he wasn’t sure, especially not considering it completely

fact, it took a proportionally minuscule level of energy no matter what grade he was in. Instead, the true cost of the

infuse anything related to his Bloodline when using Gaze… but who is to say he couldn’t? Based on the description, he should

in the eyes of the Apex Predator and now stares back with equal

had come from the fusion of Hunter’s Sight and Gaze of the Apex Predator. Jake earlier considered how he infused instinctive fear into his opponents… much akin

grown to where their foes cower

based on Jake’s estimations; to allow the ones doing it to truly reflect upon their paths and skills. Gaze was a prime candidate for some kind of improvements, too, especially when one considered

foe either because he failed or because the person resisted the fear effect. Sometimes it also just made them mad. Which did make it clear that even if he did succeed, it

six matches a day

the Colosseum with

just waiting for his promotion match. Jake was beginning to feel the pressure by now. In the last two matches, he had to use dozens of kicks to achieve victory, and he even ended up

feeling this promotion match would be the end of his kicking-only spree. At this point, he continued just out of pure vanity, with the only changes to his fighting style being his experiments with inciting instinctual fear in his

waiting, he quickly checked

from Journeyman Fighter to Veteran

rank: Journeyman Fighter

Colosseum Points: 765